Warning, minor spoilers.
Oh, Hell Girl: Three Vessels, you really are a unique season, aren't you? I’ll admit that Hell Girl is not for everyone, what not with how repetitive a good chunk of the episodes is. Going into season three, I wasn’t expecting anything different from the first two seasons: each episode, someone gets sent to hell and the series has a bit of plot progression or character development. We saw this a lot more during season two with the principle cast being given proper histories as opposed to just being Ai’s companions. It was something that I was hoping to see more of this
...
season since, as I mentioned, Hell Girl is VERY episodic.
So, what makes Hell Girl: Three Vessels (or Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae) so unique? Well, unlike the past two seasons which I thought were perfectly decent series, Three Vessels manages to be simultaneously one of the worst and best anime I’ve ever seen. There truly isn’t any anime that I’ve seen in recent memory that truly ascribe to the feeling that I felt while watching this. But wait, how can an anime be both one of the worst and one of the best?
Well, to put it bluntly, the first half of this season is abjectly terrible. First and foremost, Ai is back without any explanation. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Ai’s character, but there is no effort to justify or explain how she returned after what happened to her at the end of season two. As for other non-principle characters in the first twelve episodes? Think of some of the dumbest and most terrible writing you’ve seen in anime and know that it doesn’t even come close to the idiocy that you see here. Back in the good ol’ days of seasons one and two, you had people being sent to Hell for murder, attempted rape, blackmail, abuse, slander, neglect, you name it. Rarely was there an instance of someone being sent to hell who didn’t deserve it. The series also did a decent job at showing how conflicted people (generally) were about condemning themselves to eternal damnation.
Now do you remember the three or so episodes of Two Mirrors where the citizens of Lovely Hills were sending other to Hell for incredibly trite and dumbass reasons? Well, that is almost exclusively what you find in Three Vessels.
Seriously, just to give you an idea, let’s look at some of the completely justified and 100% sound reasons people were sent to Hell in this season.
Ep 1: For telling students to behave in class.
Ep 3: For telling someone they can’t sing.
Ep 4: ?????????
Ep 5: For lying to her grandmother.
Ep 6: For liking a teacher.
Ep 7: For being helpful.
Ep 9: For existing (Yes, really).
Ep 10: For selling clothes.
Ep 11: For writing a book; also, returning a book.
Ep 12: For saving someone from suicide.
What? Did you think that the abusive mother or cheating boyfriend would be the targets of retribution? Ha! What are you? A normal, rational person?
So many of these plot contrivances in the first half of this season were caused by one of my biggest pet peeves in storytelling which is poor communication. More than half of the conflicts in these episodes could have been solved if people simply TALKED to each other. Even in episode 8, which I left out (because the woman in question deliberately poisons a dog), the ‘villain’ could have avoided her fate if she reasonably explained the problems she was having with her neighbor. But she doesn’t and pays the price for it.
I’d also like to point out that there is a scene that is repeated every episode and it takes up a FULL MINUTE of the run time. It was artistic and interesting if not disturbing in the first episode and was needless every episode afterward.
All that being said, the series becomes much more tolerable from episode thirteen onward. Not to say that there still aren’t stupid characters who make mind-numbingly delusional choices (looking at you Episode 18), but the justifications become a lot more in line with previous seasons and with realistic, emotional reactions.
After Episode 19, the season becomes truly incredible. Without spoiling anything, all I can say is that there is a very unexpected plot twist that you will not pick up on unless you give the show your complete and undivided attention. In terms of Western media, the twist is somewhat cliché, but in the context of the anime, it was something that I legitimately did not see coming. It can be a tad melodramatic at times, but considering the circumstances of these episodes, I’m willing to overlook it. Characters are fleshed out and believable for what is an otherwise unrealistic anime.
The art, sound and animation of this series are also pretty good. Nothing insanely spectacular or memorable, but consistent to what we’ve seen so far. It’s because of this consistency that I’m mad that Three Vessels even bothered with the poor writing quality of the first twelve episodes. Even simply changing the motives or personalities of a few people could have drastically altered how I viewed this show. But instead, I got stuck with this slog of dumb choices and idiotic characters.
I do recommend that in watching this series that you skip episodes 2-12 and possibly 18. They are not necessary in advancing the plot in any meaningful sense. But if you choose to watch it and stick it out, I guarantee that you will be rewarded with a truly outstanding conclusion to this arc.
The first half of this season was a 3, but the last half was a 9, so I'll be generous and average out my scores since it's wholly representative of what I thought about this season.
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Nov 17, 2021
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Warning, minor spoilers.
Oh, Hell Girl: Three Vessels, you really are a unique season, aren't you? I’ll admit that Hell Girl is not for everyone, what not with how repetitive a good chunk of the episodes is. Going into season three, I wasn’t expecting anything different from the first two seasons: each episode, someone gets sent to hell and the series has a bit of plot progression or character development. We saw this a lot more during season two with the principle cast being given proper histories as opposed to just being Ai’s companions. It was something that I was hoping to see more of this ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 19, 2021 Not Recommended
Warning, there will be spoilers ahead. Although I don't recommend you watch this show, spoilers will be mentioned in the event that you choose to do so. This will also be long as I have a lot of feelings after viewing Babylon.
There are very few times that an anime can elicit a significant emotional reaction from me. If an anime can make me laugh until it hurts or cry until I can't anymore, I know it's something special. In the case of Babylon, my significant emotional reaction almost made me put my fist through my monitor. Not even Charlotte in all of its terribleness has ... made me this heated. Babylon is one anime that on every technical level, sells. The art and backgrounds are excellent, and help to bolster the generally okay animation. The soundtrack is absolutely kickass and subtly boosts every scene with a feeling of adrenaline. Whether that adrenaline comes from exhilaration at an action scene or anxiety at the unknown showcases the expert craft and how effective an OST can be in making or breaking an anime. The cinematography was also pretty good. In a series with a lot of grey and white tones, you need that little extra to keep your viewers' attention glued to the screen. The first six or so episodes are expertly crafted. With an eerie, almost placid quality to the likes of Terror in Resonance, the anime draws you in. The first episode wastes no time in presenting the dilemma at hand. A doctor is found dead of an apparent anesthesia overdose, or was it? Past experience in such mysteries would indicate that the man was murdered, which is only confirmed by the presence of two people seen on a security camera shortly before his death. The series then takes a sudden and shocking turn by killing off one of the supposed protagonists right at the end of episode one. Still, you are convinced something happened to him and the intrigue keeps you going until you reach the end of episode three and you desperately want to know how the deaths of dozens of people can all be linked back together. This pace is kept up to episode six, and the political thriller becomes a deftly woven web of cat and mouse between the investigation unit and the duo-team of a young politician and a mysterious woman. Then episode seven happens. An episode that I can only compare on equal setup to The Tragedy from the Danganronpa franchise. In one series, a girl convinces people to kill each other; in the other, she convinces people to kill themselves. All this to cause despair. For all intents and purposes, these episodes are exactly the same. It's at this point that we conclusively see that the mysterious woman is one of the most psychotic anime characters ever to twistedly grace the silver screen. So after all this, why did I give this the lowest score I've ever given an anime? To be perfectly blunt, this might be one of the single most offensive examples of fiction that I have ever seen, not just including anime. In fact, I was so thoroughly incensed by this, that I'm not even sure where to start. I think the first thing I can think of right off the bat is the entire moral problem the show tries to discuss, or the concept of legalized suicide through the idealized lens of freedom. In episode six, the main opponents of "The Suicide Law" as it's put, discuss why legally endorsing such a practice would be wrong, and the (at this point) supposed primary antagonist rattles off a bunch of weak arguments, which is then subsequently treated as him "fighting off all the main points." Are you fucking kidding me? That's it? You have an insane argument that some lunatic is making through the veneer of moral neutrality and you as critical thinkers can't come up with any rebuttals? What kind of politicians are you? Then the asshole goes into a big grandstanding of moral preaching of how "the option of suicide is good actually because then we can have organ donors!" Yes, this is actually an argument made that is presented as completely sound and rational and not like it's being made from an institutionalized patient. (Also "parallels" to legally assisted suicide are made to both homosexuality and the legalization of marijuana as if it's just a society's change of morals just as another fyi). The characters in this show have such baffling reasonings behind their positions, that I can't even continue with the logic behind them. So much so that I found myself screaming, "Real people don't fucking think like this! This isn't how the real world works!" I mean, how can anyone that isn't a nihilist think that the legalization of literal suicide drugs would be a net positive for society? Any reasonable person who watches this will come to the completely normal conclusion that suicide is universally bad for everyone involved. But yet the show tries to question what good and bad are so that they can hamfistedly answer if the concept of legally assisted suicide is good or not, only to state objectively that if something is good, it continues, and if it's bad, it ends. Bullshit. Plenty of evil things in this world still continue and plenty of good comes out of the ending of bad things. (I also found this entire scene incredibly ironic since I had just recently discussed Euthyphro's dilemma about goodness in my philosophy class and about how hard it was to come to a solution. The idea that objectivity could be found in a philosophical concept like this is laughable). Speaking of evil things still continuing, let's talk about the mysterious woman. It's heavily implied from episode six onward that she is a supernatural being of some sort, being able to convince people to off themselves with nothing more than a few words. By episode eleven, the anime's title comes to light and aptly compares her to the Whore of Babylon, something that only then seems to make perfect sense since she visibly seems to have been the anthropomorphization of suicidal thoughts and the euphoria at the resolve to die. Not only that, but just like the suicides, she had no rational motivation. At. All. We never find out why she wanted to do any of this. Why she wreaked so much havoc and destroyed so many lives. It is completely chalked up to the psychopathic nature of her being. The writing of the second half of this series is so bad that the previously interesting villain's primary motivation is completely handwaved. (We also never have any indication of what became of the Suicide Law. There is never a resolution). To be fair, we never get answers to a lot of things in this show. What started off as two simple prompts (What is good/bad? Is legalized suicide morally acceptable?), metastasized into an enormous mess of unanswered questions. This anime literally leaves you with more questions than it does answers, which to be fair wasn't hard to do because it didn't answer anything anyway. (Adding salt to the wound, neither of the initial prompts are answered either). (Also as an aside, the anime tries to take a religious approach to the concept of suicide and comes to the extremely offensive and wrong take that suicide should be a-ok in the eyes of Christians since the Bible never explicitly says anything about suicide and tries to play it off as investigative thinking. I'd like to think that even non-religious or non-Christian people could come to the conclusion that Christians still view suicide as a form of murder and morally wrong. The idea that a supposedly "strong" "Catholic" character could even entertain the idea is repugnant and borderline blasphemous). Anything worth while the anime tried to build up comes crashing down and the viewer is left with the lingering sensation that trying to defeat suicidal thoughts is an impossible and ultimately meaningless task to pursue. I've been fortunate enough to not have had such struggles, but I know people who have. To be told that nothing will ever be enough and death is the only euphoric solution is nothing short of heinous. Concluding this review, Babylon represents everything I hate. The disgusting and distortive take of liberty and freedom; the hopeless and bleak outlook on life and depression; perversion of societal morals; the complete lack of critical thinking; an utter disregard for meaningful storytelling, the list goes on. This show was an absolute waste of time, and I felt like absolutely nothing was gained from having watched it. It is not thought-provoking in any meaningful sense, and those who say it is are either lying or incredibly blinded to the spectacle. I apologize for the length, but I needed to get this off of my chest and there was no way that such a heavy topic was going to have a short and trite review. Thank you for reading. (And know that you are loved by someone in your life; suicide will never be the answer).
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Sep 14, 2021
Hataraku Saibou!!
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
After reintroducing myself back to the Cells at Work series with Code Black, I thought I'd take a crack at watching the second season to the first one which I rather liked. And after watching, I can only think of one word to describe this season: Unnecessary.
Not BAD, but I feel like this season didn't need to be made. A lot of the same issues are being dealt with as in past episodes with little variation to be seen. "Bump" is very similar to "Scrape Wound" from the first season, and "Dengue Fever" and "Mumps" feel like derivatives of varying parts from "Cedar Pollen Allergy." ... There's just no exciting material that vastly differs it from the first season. The only ones that felt like new material to me were "Acne" and "Peyer's Patch." And technically, the use of cytokines and H. pylori were new, although compared to how they were used in Code Black, they felt underwhelming and dorky. (Although these shows have wildly different thematic elements, so I'll let that slide). Adding that in, the central conflict didn't feel like it posed any real threat to the body. Whereas "Hemorrhagic Shock" and "Cancer Cell" felt like legitimate issues that the body had to tackle, and were great as unique threats to the cells, I couldn't find anything in this season that truly felt dangerous. No, for this season, the writers just brought Cancer Cell back as the main villain, and instead of being strangely sympathetic like he was in his introduction, he felt cartoonishly evil and annoying. (And also the interaction with Regulatory T Cell was bizarre since IIRC, she didn't have the same reaction or role in the first season). That being said, I still think the series was fine. I wish the focus was more on AE3803 since I felt like her role in this was largely diminished. Not that I dislike U-1146, but they had about the same screentime in the first season and he vastly overshadowed her along with the epithelial cell that took care of the lactic acid bacteria. Animation was good; fight scenes felt a little underwhelming comparatively. Music still had a fun, upbeat manner and the characters were still kinda hokey, but in an endearing way. There wasn't much of any character growth also though, which kinda sucked. (And guys, I get this is first and foremost an 'edutainment anime,' but I don't need to have scenes paused to explain lactic acid bacteria six times in the span of two episodes. We're not goldfish here). If you liked the first season (like I did), you'll like this one too, since it's largely a bunch of the same things with a new coat of paint.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 25, 2021
Great Pretender
(Anime)
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Recommended
I can't remember the last time I've been so thoroughly entertained by a show.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of shows that I've seen in the past few years that have made me laugh (Kaguya-sama, KonoSuba), and some that have made me cry (Violet Evergarden, Assassination Classroom). And while those shows are entertaining in their own respective rights, and have a great emotional significance to me, I can't say that any of them gave me a sort of "high" after finishing them. The same cannot be said for Great Pretender. If you've seen non-anime movies such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ocean's Eleven, Catch Me if ... You Can, Now You See Me, etc., you know that a plot focused around con-men and/or heists can leave a lot of room for creativity. Whether or not that creativity is met is subjective (since these stories are notorious for being open to plot holes), but a lot of the time, there's a cleverness that can't be easily replicated by movies or shows in other genres. Great Pretender in this respect doesn't pretend (pun not intended) to be original with the way its plot plays out. It's a pretty standard story about heists, but the way that it intricately weaves together an interconnecting story through these various arcs is what makes it technically impressive. Its predictability in certain scenarios is never insanely distracting because while you can figure out something is up, you can never accurately guess what the plot twist in question will be; something that is a commonality in the aforementioned movies and likeminded fictional media. So what exactly makes Great Pretender so "Great?" For one, the soundtrack is absolutely incredible. I may be biased since I am a huge fan of jazz, but the OST is so intensely reminiscent of a "grand heist," that you are constantly caught up in the atmosphere. This almost never lets up save for scenes that are meant to be emotional or tense; moments where the presence of jazz would kill the mood. The OP is easily one of the best OPs of 2020. It's played out in a sort of 30s/40s art style with dark silhouettes against bright, colorful backdrops. It's a perfect start to Great Pretender and establishes the entire tone of the series. The ED is great too, and gives little hints at the story like the OP does, but you never really put it together until the last half of the final arc. Also hearing Freddie Mercury's rendition of "The Great Pretender" was a welcome surprise. The animation itself is nothing new; better animation has come out of the likes of KyoAni, Studio Trigger, and P.A. Works. However, the simplistic and crisp animation of the characters contrasting with the beautiful and vivid backgrounds creates such a visually appealing aesthetic that it may as well be crack for the eyes. This quality never wavers and the vibrancy is almost always present. It is a visual feast from beginning to end even if it isn't necessarily inventive. The cinematography is also quite impressive. I would also like to point out that I greatly appreciate Great Pretender for giving the majority of its cast some level of depth. Each of the primary characters is given a history that doesn't feel shallow or tacky. In the cases of Abigail and Cynthia, the backstories are neatly compacted within their respective arcs without managing to bog down the story or distract the viewer with needless flashbacks. As for Makoto and Laurent, their backstories serve as a backdrop for the entire series, although Laurent's history is only explored in the last arc and is only connected to the entire series once his past relationships and motivations are fully established. Almost everything is intentional; if a plot point is brought up, it isn't ignored, no matter how trivial of a moment it might seem. Everything completely comes around full circle by the last arc. This is one of the greatest compliments I can give to an anime because too often, I see good anime dragged down by unresolved and/or unnecessary plot points. SPOILERS I'll use that as a segue into my minor gripes with the show. This is also where I'm going to place a big, huge SPOILERS, because if you haven't watched the show, you should really go watch it. It really is an incredible series despite the issues I had with it. I had a few problems with the series itself that manifested in the last arc. These seem to be common problems that everyone has, so I don't feel like I'm nitpicking. - Faked deaths got to be too contrived by the tail end of the series. There was no moment I was truly shocked by a death because I figured that there was some elaborate scheme behind it. This is also what I disliked about Dorothy's character arc and preferred she remained dead. Now with her being confirmed alive in the epilogue, the weight of the final scam, decades in the making, is now significantly trivialized. This also opens the way for a sequel, and while I love this show, it would have been more impactful to have resolved everyone's plot points after successfully conning the yakuza, and have this be the only season of Great Pretender. - Bringing back the villains made zero sense because their role in Makoto's plan was largely unnecessary. He could have pulled the same stunt on Laurent and received the same reaction without relying on Gassano to bust in out of nowhere. Likewise, Cynthia's arc is regarded to be one of the strongest in the show, so to have Coleman, who essentially ruined the artistic drive and integrity of the man she loved, be casually sitting on a yacht with her seems completely out of character. Not to mention that it's established that Gassano and Sam are willing to kill people who cross or swindle them. "We have nothing to gain" is not an acceptable excuse for bringing them back and having them forgive the others for essentially destroying their livelihoods and reputations. - And contrary to what everyone seems to be stating, I don't find the final heist to be too out of the question. Its over-the-top and ridiculous nature builds into Laurent's ideal of being a master con-man. My main issue with the arc is that Makoto's character development is seemingly handwaved. At first being repulsed by the child trafficking, then being actively a part of the auctioneering process was a complete 180. And even if the kids were never in any danger, the point remains that Makoto took part in this *of his own free will.* I do partially chalk this up to Makoto's understandably damaged psyche and mental wellbeing after seeing what he went through on the yacht. That still doesn't fully explain that sudden character turn, nor does it excuse Laurent from withholding the truth. Even at his worst, he kept up the act; he was fully capable of going through whatever Laurent wanted him to do if he was just kept abreast of the situation. Likewise people need to remember that this show is first and foremost a comedy. It's adult sure, but this isn't something like School-Live! or Higurashi where the light-hearted comedy is concealing the underlying darkness. Makoto's mental snap made sense and him betraying the Confidence Men would have been not only 100% justifiable (for everything they put them through; for being well-written characters, none of the Confidence Men are good people) but a massive plot twist that would have made for an unbelievable and unexpected ending. That being said, if his breakdown wasn't an act and he actually betrayed and killed them, that would have been far too dark for what the series was trying to convey and wouldn't keep in line with the tone of the show. I'm glad the anime ended on the note that it did. SPOILERS END (TL;DR The last arc had some nonsensical character writing and development in a few of the episodes and it took me out of what was an otherwise fantastic anime). Despite what I just said, you'd think I hate this show. Far from it. I actually was so thoroughly entertained and enthralled by this anime that I considered ignoring the flaws to give it a 10. I truly loved it that much. This anime is really something special, and is a sign of a willingness to push the boundaries of what it means to have meaningful storytelling paired with stunning imagery, wonderful music, and clever writing. Great Pretender is an absolute spectacle, and you'd be doing yourself a massive disservice if you don't watch it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 19, 2019
Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
WARNING: CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS!
Oh Magical Girl Raising Project, you had a ton of potential, but I can't really say I'm surprised with the end result. In my experience, I've found that a ton of survival game or battle royale series really fail to make a huge impression on me, which is a shame, because the genre itself is pretty entertaining. This series really isn't any different. If you've watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Juuni Taisen, then you've already watched this anime. It's essentially nothing more than a combination of those two shows (with a little Danganronpa added in the mix). It tries to be ... a another new subversion to the magical girl genre, but fails to do anything meaningful. Before I address the characters and the story, I want to briefly mention the animation and the sound, which were actually two pretty strong aspects of this show. The OST is pretty nice, although I really can't pick out a point that I liked aside from whenever Hardgore Alice was with Budget Madoka. The creepy undertones were a great tonal touch to the scene. The opening and ending were also executed extremely well. The animation isn't anything particularly special, but works pretty well for the show. It's not horrible, but it isn't exactly Violet Evergarden either. The character designs were also appealing to look at. They weren't necessarily creative, but they were very well executed. Of course, if Charlotte and Btooom! have taught me anything, it's never to judge an anime solely on the production value. MagiPro no doubt looks pretty, but in this case, that's all it has going for it. The characters were atrociously handled, however. You know how I said that this show was like Juuni Taisen? Not only was MagiPro a survival game, but the tried and failed method of giving a soon-to-die character a backstory became really irritating. I didn't have time to get invested in the characters because they had such a small window of time to convey any meaningful history to the audience. I'm fully aware that survival games involve killing; that's sort of the entire point of the show. However, this show frustrated me by killing off a good chunk of any characters that had potential to be interesting. La Pucelle, Ruler, and Magicaloid 44 had far more potential to be interesting characters than many of the girls that ended up surviving the majority of the game. Say what you will about Ruler, but at least she had some iota of intrigue. No doubt she was pompous and condescending, but she had more of a presence than many of the other girls. Then you also have your classic tsundere who suspiciously looked way too much like Akatsuki from Log Horizon. You have the bubbly and kind girl who loves everyone, but you really don't get to know more about her since she's the first one to meet her end. Both of the angels were obnoxiously annoying, when they really had no reason to. I also really couldn't be bothered to care about Winterprison or Sister Nana either. I thought their relationship was sweet, but that was pretty much it. Also I wanted to reach through the screen and smack Tama. Her incessant whining and subservient attitude got really old after a while. The antagonists were pretty weak too. Mainly because after watching this series, I still have no clue what any of their primary motives were. Cranberry, wanted to fight strong people. That's about it to her. I couldn't get a clue on what Calamity Mary wanted, aside from maybe wanting to cause mayhem. Don't even get me started on Swim Swim. If I remember correctly, then her goal was to be like Ruler. If I'm wrong, then I have absolutely no idea what the purpose behind her bloodlust was. (Being "crazy" is not an excuse). Oh, and I almost forgot, the starter of the entire game, Fav, or as I like to call him, Monokyumey. If I'm being honest here, I still don't know what his purpose served. It's almost like the writers took Kyubey, and tried to make the same concept work for this knock off. There's no reason behind the bloodshed or the death in this game. At least with Madoka, Kyubey was tricking the magical girls into signing contracts with him so he could benefit his race with the deaths of them. With Fav, it seems that the only motive is to satisfy his own desire for blood. Now normally, this approach for a character isn't necessarily bad. I still think that Tatsumi from Shiki fueled the actions of the other vampires with his nihilistic lust for violence. His sadism makes sense in the context of his respective story. However, with Fav, there really seems to be no motive behind him, other than seeing cute girls die. He mentions the magical world, and the Magical Girl Raising Project, but nowhere do we get any indication that there's someone behind the scenes pulling his strings. Sure we find out that Cranberry was the mastermind behind this game, but there's really nothing more than that. They were just cruddy and uninspired villains. And finally, we have our protagonist, if you can even call her that, Snow White, or Budget Madoka. Of all of the anime I've seen so far, she may be one of the worst protagonists I've ever seen. Not because she's a bad person, she's just a horrible character. You rarely see her throughout the entire run of the show, and when she's in camera shot, she does practically nothing. Fav literally states in the last episode that Budget Madoka never even had to get her hands dirty. I've made my distaste for Future Diary and its main character (among others) known, but at least Yuki had some semblance of a personality or drive. Yes, I'm actually using Yuki as a POSITIVE example here. I know that I have to suspend my disbelief whenever I watch fiction, but MagiPro made it really difficult for me to keep that suspension. There's just no realistic way Snow White would have ever survived this game. The only character that didn't bother me was Top Speed, but again she got such a small amount of history that even then, I find it hard to connect to her character. The story ultimately becomes extremely convoluted. The first episode had promise, but after finishing, I'm left with more questions than when I started. What exactly is the magic world? The only thing we know about it is that it exists. We don't know if it's an alternate dimension or a separate planet, we don't know about who lives there, we don't know the purpose behind the Magical Girl Raising Project at all. Since if there's a world inhabited by magical girls, then what would be the purpose behind the project? How are the magical girls chosen? Is it at random? I find that relatively hard to believe considering a pair of twin sisters were chosen. Is it based on merit? Well then that would rule out Calamity Mary, who was nothing more than a drunkard who abused her daughter. The method on how they're chosen is never really specified. Also, what was the entire purpose behind the deaths? Kyubeykuma mentioned that other magical girls were chosen by defeating a monster or doing good deeds, so why did it suddenly change to a death game? I refuse to accept that there aren't other forces beyond Cranberry and Fav that determine how the games play out. Something had to have created Fav, and that something or someone had to have access to other worlds. It just makes no realistic sense for someone to change from pacifistic methods to ones that end in bloodshed. Fav mentions that if he doesn't find another master, that he'll be in trouble. Why is this the case? Hell if I know, and it looks like we won't be receiving another season any time soon. I could be wrong since the manga is still in production, but as of recent news, this is all we have. I really wanted to like MagiPro, I really did. The show definitely has its merits, but the numerous plotholes and shallow characters overshadow them significantly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 1, 2018 Mixed Feelings
Contains spoilers, you've been warned.
Let me preface this by saying that I do not dislike this series. I LOVED the first season, the filler was kinda eh, and this falls somewhere close to the filler. From a pure enjoyment perspective, I really enjoyed this season. I kept watching and binged half of the season in a day. However, from an analytical perspective, this season is kinda disappointing. The art and sound remain pretty much the same. There are practically no complaints here. The animation looks awesome and the background music is reminiscent of Fairy Tail, but still retains its unique personality. The story and the character ... development kinda fall flat though. The plot is pretty interesting, having the Ten Commandments rise from their imprisonment, and their attempt to take over Britannia, and the attempts of the Seven Deadly Sins to stop them. It's pretty generic, but it gets the job done. The story kinda progresses slowly, but it wasn't too big of a deal. Although I did roll my eyes at the training arc that made no sense and the tournament arc, which again, also did not have any impact in the long run of the story. My biggest issue with this season were the characters. Let me go through a couple and explain my reasoning. Firstly, Gowther was an absolute ass out of nowhere. Not only did he erase Guila and Zeal's memories of each other, but he erases Diane's memories for no apparent reason. Like, literally, there's no rationale behind it other than proving that he has the ability to do so. The Seven Deadly Sins ABRIDGED Version of Gowther was damn hilarious. However, with the one from THIS season, I just wanted to reach through the screen and bitch-slap him into next week. He was such a condescending douche for literally no reason, causing a whole bunch of problems just for the hell of it. Diane was supremely useless for the majority of the season's run. I mean this is mostly thanks to Gowther wiping her memories, but she transforms from this badass boss to a sniveling damsel in distress. Elizabeth wasn't that useful either. I mean you could argue she did save Meliodas, but he wasn't in any real sort of danger, so her role was pretty trivial. I don't know what the writers were thinking of with regards to Hawk's character. In the first season, he was pretty hilarious and charming, but he was more annoying and gimmicky in this one. I didn't mention this earlier, but I HATED the whole "power level" spiel. It felt like lazy writing just to establish how truly powerful different characters were. Like we get it, we know how powerful they are, no need to insult our intelligence by dumbing down the mechanics of the show. Anyways, back to Hawk. His whole "swallowing a magical creature" really didn't make any sense, and seemed to come off as more arrogant and less cute. I honestly believe that we entered a different World Line in which Hawk didn't actually save Meliodas and Elizabeth, and instead had a complete character rework to become what he was in this season. None of the Holy Knights made an impact on me like they did in the original series. Whereas they were brooding and powerful knights in the first season, they were more or less bumbling dolts who sometimes fought well and shouted out the names of their moves in this one. Merlin, like Meliodas, absolutely refused to die. I mean don't get me wrong, I love both of these characters, but like Ban, it's impossible for them to die. She's a really interesting character and apparently very intelligent, so why she felt the need to give Hawk his power-level thingy was so strange. Also the idea that she wasn't able to stand a chance against Galand but was totally able to take down Grayroad, who was apparently a lot more powerful, without any problem made no sense either. King and Ban were okay. I thought Ban's connection with Elaine was sweet, but his treatment of Jericho was ridiculous. This chick puts her life on the line for a man that she knows full well can't die, and the dude just brushes her aside. Like wtf man? I still like Ban, but I could not for the life of me understand how he ignored Jericho when she risked life and limb to save both him AND Elaine. King was still cool, but his blubbering about Diane got old after a while. My biggest confusion came from Hendrickson's character. Like I get that he was manipulated by Fraudrin and everything, but his complete character 180 from the original series made ZERO sense. Like he released the Ten Commandments, then not even two minutes after that, realizes he has royally screwed up and decides to fight against them? Like what? Him hanging out in the Boar's Hat like nothing had happened felt so out of place, and the whole Druid aspect felt thrown in at the last second just to give him this OP power, which was really only there to establish that Elizabeth had the same power too. The Ten Commandments were such an interesting group of characters, but as far as motives go, they were really just "We're evil because we're the villains of this show." Like all they wanted to do was take over Britannia. That was it. Derieri and Monspeet had so much room for character development, but instead got shoved to the sidelines. We almost never get to know anything about them, other than the fact that they're demons and they love each other. It's never established why Drole and Gloxinia joined the Ten Commandments in the first place. Like we know that they fought against the Demon King, but it is never touched upon why they switched sides. I never liked Zeldris from the get-go, he more or less just felt like the typical "edgy for the sake of edginess" villain. Grayroad was extremely creepy and interesting, but how easily she fell to Merlin made me lose any respect for her as a character. I never liked Fraudrin, especially considering how little we saw of his character in the first season. Similar to Hendrickson, the whole 180 seemed to come out of nowhere. I thought Melascula had some pretty damn good character development, and I thought that her drunk interactions with Escanor and Galand were hilarious, but I kinda got sick after she miraculously survives the sins not once, but TWICE. Estarossa was pretty interesting, and his whole interaction with Meliodas was compelling and his fight with Escanor was damn awesome. The only Commandment I can say I genuinely enjoyed was Galand, but then again he fell pretty pathetically to Escanor. Escanor is the only reason that my character score isn't any lower. The series instantly shot up in enjoyment the episode his character was introduced. He's just so stupidly overpowered, that you can't help but grin at his sheer amount of pride. This is a manly man enough to give Alex Armstrong and Kamina a run for their money. The way he pummeled each of the Commandments without batting an eye was such a cool thing to behold. His love of Merlin was also pretty sweet too. Almost all of the other characters I couldn't care less about it. Characters like Dolores and Zhivago felt like they were introduced for the sole purpose of another person's character development. Matrona really didn't make much of an impact. I thought she was stupid to block the arrow for Diane, and the idea that a tiny human could saw through that much muscle and bone in time to save a giant just felt unrealistic. I know this show is unrealistic to begin with, but you really have to stretch your imagination to understand how she was still able to survive all of that. As a last minor note, that goddess towards the end was a total bitch. Sorry lady, but you are a goddess, a race that is apparently superior to all other races. Why the hell are you running away from a fight? Derieri should NOT be able to go Super Saiyan and bisect you with one swipe. Doesn't work like that honey. Might I add that death is meaningless in this show. Spoilers, but no character that has any meaningful presence dies. Galand slaughters more than half of the sins towards the beginning of the series, but surprise, an illusion was created and they weren't really in any danger and Elizabeth healed their scratches. Meliodas dies, but again, surprise he's back from the dead for whatever reason. And sorry, but giving Melascula the power the ability to bring things back from the dead was such a lazy method of tying up loose ends. Like, I'm convinced the only purpose for that power was to bring Zaratras back (who also contributed practically nothing in the grand scheme of things). While I enjoy Merlin, as I previously mentioned, she is saved from death twice in the run of this show. Escanor is stabbed by Gloxinia, only to be brought back by Gloxinia's magic life-giving spear. It took away any emotion that I had for a reaction to a character death, since I knew that they were going to magically come back somehow. Also, all the little backstories took away from the main plot too. While they gave context to the character or situation, they just felt distracting. As I previously mentioned, I still enjoyed the series, I just can't bring myself to hate it. But if I analyze it, then I find myself finding flaws with just about every single character. It's by no means a bad show, but it was definitely not as good as it's predecessor.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 19, 2018 Not Recommended
It's kind of interesting how hard it is to make good survival game anime, there really aren't that many out there that are good. I've made my opinions clear on "Future Diary" and "Juuni Taisen", and they both show why survival game anime are extremely difficult to make properly. "Btooom!" is another such example.
Going into it, the idea of the anime seems pretty promising. I mean yeah, it's a survival game, nothing too interesting about that, but the whole premise seemed pretty unique. Whereas "Future Diary" and "Juuni Taisen" have willing and knowledgeable participants, every competitor in "Btooom!" has participants that were unwillingly kidnapped ... and brought onto an island. However, the creativity stops there. Let me just go through a few of the things that made me dislike this anime as whole. On a positive note though: Art: The art is actually pretty damn stunning. Coming from Madhouse, this isn't really a surprise. Watching it, you really feel yourself immersed into this jungle-like island. The animation on the leaves is vivid and gorgeous, the rivers look bright and refreshing, each character has a really clean design, etc. Hell, the animators even took every liberty to make the scales on a lizard realistic. Like the animators took a ton of dedication into making it look good. Sound: The sound is damn awesome too. The music during the actions scenes either gives you a feeling of dread, suspense, adrenaline or an odd combination of the three. Not to mention that the opening is fantastic. Not my favorite, but it definitely set the tone the show tried to establish. Key word: Tried. Story and Characters: Using that I'll segue into my next section, arguably the weakest part of the show was the story and the characters as a whole. Don't let this anime fool you, its beauty is skin deep. The story begins by introducing the audience to the protagonist, Ryouta Sakamoto who is a NEET and top Btooom! player, being the best in Japan and #10 in the world. One day, he wakes up to discover that he's on an island, and rapidly figures out something is wrong. Won't go into any more detail since I think the rest is pretty self explanatory. The story tries to take itself too seriously. It has so much potential to be an interesting and thought-provoking series, but falls flat on the multitudinous problems that you see throughout the run of the show. Firstly, this is a world in which the laws of physics don't apply. If a bomb is thrown at a remotely important character, their plot armor kicks in and they magically make it out alive. When the same bomb is thrown in the exact same way at a character no one cares about, nope, sorry, you're dead. Like honestly, this got to be such a contrived part of the series. The majority of primary protagonists and antagonists find some convoluted and complicated way out of avoiding BIMs, even if realistically there's no possible way that anyone could possibly survive, much less dodge a bomb like that. What makes zero sense is that even if you are lucky enough to avoid a bomb, you will either die or be severely impaired or incapacitated from the g-force of the bomb alone. In wars, the majority of grenade related deaths are either due to shrapnel, or the g-force of the explosion shattering skulls. So many of the characters feel immortal with the way they're able to avoid death without a scratch. "Thank God there was this rock that appeared out of nowhere to shield me from the blast!" This series has so much Deus ex Machina, it feels like something out of "Future Diary" (sorry not sorry). I'd be willing to forgive all of that if the series concluded properly, but no. The ending is a total cliffhanger, and based on the idea that there likely won't be a second season, this is all we have. The characters are even worse. I have hated virtually every single character in this anime aside from maybe one or two. Ryouta is such a confusing character, at least in personality. He's a total dick to his parents, but suddenly changes to this virtuous protector on the island. And even his tactfulness varies greatly on the island too. Either he's unbelievably brilliant and cunning, or has no damn clue what he's doing. He's supposedly this amazing player, so how it took him multiple tries to understand how the timer BIMs worked was beyond me. His design, while clean, lacks any sort of creativity. He kinda looks like Light Yagami crossed with a harem protagonist. Himiko isn't any better. While the concept of having someone go through trauma and attempted rape in the past, and then having to adapt to a survival game environment is really interesting, the writers did almost nothing with it. She's also apparently a pretty good player in Btooom! too. She could have been this amazing contender, but was reduced to another typical damsel in distress. Another thing that bothered me about her character was her distrust of men. No doubt what she went through was horrible, but to make a scathing generalization about ALL men was just ridiculous. I mean she's put in a ton of compromising situations where someone might have their way with her, so I don't blame her on that. What I DO blame her for is that she distrusts Ryouta, but sticks around with him and Taira anyway. Like she doesn't bother to trek out on her own and attempt to live off the land, which would have been a really cool deviation from the norm. She doesn't even try to find another woman either. I also disliked how the writers and designers put in fanservice at really inappropriate moments. A good chunk of the time, whenever we see her body is when she's being assaulted, which was both distasteful and appalling. The other time fanservice was shown was when Ryouta walked in on her bathing in the river; she screams pervert of course, because why not? Even when it isn't Ryouta's fault, like when she walks out of a shower and runs into him, he's still somehow the pervert. Almost all of the other characters are pretty bad too. Pretty much because they either fall into the "this person is a dick" or "this person is insane" tropes, which is to be expected. Like, almost none of them are sane when they get on the island. Kousuke Kira is one such vile character. I don't care how you try to defend him. Saying he's crazy because "his dad abused him" is such a lazy excuse for both writing and defense of the character. His dad is a horrible, horrible person don't get me wrong, but when you kill and rape women (in that order btw) THREE times by the time you're fourteen, there's some underlying psychotic mental disorder that abusive parenting can't be solely responsible for. The lawyer and doctor characters are also awful people. The lawyer is a sleazy excuse for a human being who represents the Kiras. The doctor manipulates the good(?) nature of Ryouta by healing Taira, only to turn around and unsurprisingly betray him and Himiko by attempting to kill them with remote control BIMs. Not to mention this isn't his first rodeo either, he was on the island before, and betrayed his lover not once, but TWICE in the span of their background. Almost everyone else is a bit character that no one could bother to care about, or as I mentioned previously: insane, a dick, or an insane dick. The people back home aren't any better either. Ryouta is sent into the game by his mother of all people. He was a terrible son, but going as far to make him disappear? Are you serious? And what about Himiko's friends? In one of Himiko's backstories, we discover that she just barely managed to escape a "party" in which three of her friends were raped. What do her friends do to thank her for contacting the police when there was literally nothing else she could do? They all unanimously agree to send her in, despite having literally no reason to. "Yeah, she didn't want to get raped, and there was nothing she could have done to help us, so she escaped with her life and went to the police." What a bitch amirite? This was another point of contention I had for Himiko's character. It's made perfectly clear she doesn't like men, but she had absolutely no trust problems with girls despite the fact that THREE WOMEN were responsible for sending her into the game. The only two characters I ended up liking where Taira and Shiki (No, she wasn't actually a shiki, but how cool would that have been?). Taira is pretty much the only character to have a fleshed out background, and is a pretty good-natured, down to earth man. He even totally understands why he was in the game. He's not your typical cocky bastard who has no damn clue why he was sent there. Shiki is also a cool character too, having survived the first game, only to come face-to-face with the man who stabbed her in the back twice. Unfortunately, she doesn't get much time and there isn't much more to her character, which is a shame because she's really interesting and mysterious, and I want to get to know more about her. These two, the sound and the attention to detail in the animation are the only reasons this score is a three and not a two. "Btooom!" had so much wasted potential, and instead chose to go with a trope-filled plot with detestable characters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 17, 2018 Recommended
"Shiki is one of the very few horror series that works both as horror and as a cinematic commentary on our voyeuristic enjoyment of the genre." - Anime News Network
WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD After writing mostly negative reviews, I thought that I'd write my first positive one. It's not very often that I find an anime that is particularly thought-provoking, and really makes me sit back and think about the anime's entire message. Insofar, the only anime that have made me ponder the series' message have been "Psycho-Pass" and "Steins;Gate," both giving commentaries on the dangers of messing around with technology and time respectively. "Shiki" ... stands out as a horror anime because the horror is in the supernatural ambiance rather than blatant gore (although it covers that aspect pretty well too) or jump scares. It isn't so much as being "scary" than it is "unnerving," "creepy," and "suspenseful." I'm not the biggest fan of horror films, but thought I'd give "Shiki" a try and go out of my comfort zone. Suffice to say, this series was AWESOME. Let me extrapolate a bit on why, because it seems that many people seem to dislike "Shiki" for one reason or the other. Art: This might be the weakest part of "Shiki," but it's not even that bad either. I thought the slender and lanky frames of a good chunk of the characters to work out in the show's favor, giving the series an overarching skeletal vibe. Sure, the hair is pretty ridiculous, I'll give people that, but I felt the hair as a whole gave the series another supernatural overtone. While there's no shortage of wacky hair in the anime world, "Shiki" takes itself very seriously. The hair might make you chuckle or roll your eyes, but when the more series and deep moments of the show happen, you almost don't even notice it. Background is pretty substandard, but works for the time the anime was made, as well as helping establish the darker tones and themes of the show. Story: One major complaint about "Shiki" is that "it's too slow." While I can understand that complaint, "Shiki" is one of the few shows that works with slow pacing. I previously mentioned "Steins;Gate" as being a somewhat philosophical anime, and it, like "Shiki" has relatively slow pacing. Neither series would have worked in your typical twelve-episode time span. If you understand some of the inspiration behind "Shiki", you might understand why this show follows this progression. "Shiki" is undoubtedly based heavily on Bram Stoker's work "Dracula" (and by extension, Stephen King's "Salem's Lot", but that's besides the point). You have the more traditional qualities of vampires such as only entering places where they're invited, a disdain for religious symbols and sunlight, being the immortal undead, sucking blood and dying through a stake through the heart. Not the glittering or super-strength crap you see in modern vampire iterations. In the original work, "Dracula" plays out as a slow burn. Every person reading, from the start, is aware of the vampire problem, however, it takes the majority of the novel for the characters to actually figure out what's going on (not to mention in the original work, a doctor is the one to suspect vampires may be at play, sound familiar?). "Shiki" plays out the same way. It works up as a slow burn, introducing all of the characters, and their developing reactions to what's happening in the town. It would be unreasonable and unrealistic for everyone to start suspecting "VAMPIREZ" right off the bat. While characters like Natsuno, Ozaki, Kaori, Akira, and Seishin (and even Ikumi, although people think she's a doddering loon) figure out what's going on relatively fast, the rest of the townspeople don't figure out what's happening until evidence is presented directly in front of them (also, not unlike "Dracula" where Dr. Van Helsing reveals the vampiric Lucy). In an unrealistic, supernatural show, the reactions of each of the characters are absolutely expected. If such a situation occurred, it would be reasonable to say that some characters would catch on while others would remain partially or mostly oblivious. The slow pacing helps set up the suspense all to come together in one bloody climax. Sound: "Shiki" has two of the most underrated anime openings. Very rarely do you see either "Kuchizuke" or "Calendula Reqiuem" on "Top 100 Anime OP Lists," which is a shame because both are really good. Not only are the two of them extremely catchy in terms of vocals, but the thematic imagery represented in both openings perfectly represent the show. I recommend watching "Mother's Basement: What's in an OP" for "Kuchizuke," for more info, it really goes in-depth on why it's such a great opening. The background music in the first half drives home the suspenseful and eerie tone, while the music in the second half not only keeps that idea, but adds a thrilling undertone as well. And while this is more about the vocals and not about the sound necessarily, hearing the villagers sing "Three Blind Mice" was one of the most unnerving and ominous moments in the anime. This is also one of the few anime that you'll find out there in which the subbed and dubbed versions are both great. (Plus the use of violins during a few of the deaths works fantastically too). Character: "Where once they were built around the concept of the horror of their existence, today's vampires are built around how horrifically pretty they are." - Overly Sarcastic Productions This quote will help me explain another one of the strengths of "Shiki" in terms of its character design. While certain shiki like Chizuru are definitely easy on the eyes, and other shiki like Sunako, Megumi and Tatsumi have unrealistic hair styles, the majority of the shiki that we see in the series are for the most part pretty ordinary. They're not all glamorous and attractive like "Twilight" and "The Vampire Diaries" would have you believe. Hell, even "Vampire Knight" romanticizes them and makes them ridiculously beautiful. They're simply regular townspeople. In a world where vampires are supposed to sexy, "Shiki" takes the more realistic approach and gives a good chunk of the shiki ordinary and unassuming designs. While the juxtaposition is pretty much only there to highlight the more uncommon designs of the more prominent cast, the designs makes the shiki seem both human and nonhuman at the same time. Plus the use of the slow pacing in the first twelve or so episodes gives a proper amount of time for almost all of the characters to be mostly or fully developed, right down to the elderly gossips that make intermittent appearances throughout the course of the show. And while this next section is more of a spoiler-filled rant to explain my position, it's worth bringing up. "Shiki" is one of the few shows to keep the anime community divided well after the original run has ended. Not necessarily as divisive as "Is SAO good?", but it's pretty divisive. The question is, who was really at fault here? A good chunk of people will definitively say "the shiki" or "the humans". I personally am on the side of the shiki, but I'll explain the villagers first briefly. The reaction to the shiki was 100% realistic, and their desire to save Sotoba by ridding the town of a plague that killed their friends and family was justifiable, no one is arguing that. However, while I understood their plight, I lost any respect or pity for the villagers once "protecting our village" turned into a rage-induced form of psychotic paranoia. As I previously mentioned, the "Three Blind Mice" singing was one of the most disturbing parts of "Shiki" because it highlighted how the defense of Sotoba rapidly devolved into stripping the villagers of any humanity they had left. The indiscriminate killing of bitten villagers, those at the monastery or innocent shiki like Tae and Ritsuko further proves this point. And while Megumi was a morally abhorrent character who didn't have a single shred of goodness in her, going so far as emotionally tormenting the only person who showed any kindness to her, it was pretty hard not to feel bad for her in her final moments. Her final words weren't wrong, and for a second you forget everything terrible that she's done and hope that she's able to somehow escape the tractor tire and make it to the city. Everyone brings forward the idea "why didn't they just have people donate blood?" or "why didn't they just NOT kill people?", there are answers to this. The first answer is a somewhat plausible solution, however, this is Sotoba we're talking about. In a town where Natsuno and Megumi are seen as freaks, I don't think that they would have reacted positively to the undead living in their town. The second answer blurs lines a lot, and gives more credence to the villagers, but it's still worth addressing. The simple fact is that Sunako had no such intention of coexisting, it was simply not an option. It was a Catch 22 for Sunako, she lost no matter how you looked at it. Either she lived alone for the rest of her sad, immortal existence, ostracized from society, or she tried to set up a community that was doomed to fail from the inception. Note how Sunako, while technically being the show's main antagonist, that despite killing, she does not do so out of malice or spite. This is where I think Tatsumi's role in the whole ordeal really comes in. Tatsumi is arguably one of the most intelligent characters in the show and one of the most interesting villains that I've seen thus far. He capitalized on Sunako wanting to have an accepting community to fulfill and satiate his desire for nihilism. He knew the plan was bound to fail. He has no desire for life and instead seeks violence wherever he can. This also plays into when more shiki enter the mansion. In reality, none of them needed or wanted to kill (aside from maybe Megumi and the librarian), but Tatsumi threatened each and every one of the shiki with torture or the death of a loved one if they didn't do what he said (although this is more touched on upon in the manga). Looking into this, you can absolutely sympathize with Nao Yasumori. A lot of people say that she had it coming, but by doing a bit more research, you realize she had a pretty horrible life. Her parents gambled and drank when she was a child, leading to her feeling alone. Once she finally had a husband, child and family, all of that was taken from her when the shiki took her life away. Tatsumi likely threatened her by implying her family would die either by her hand or by someone else. Desiring to be with some of her family, she kills in the hopes they'll join her, but none of them do. This simple set of actions show Tatsumi had no real care for Nao or her family and instead manipulated her emotions for his own fulfillment of sadism. She felt alone throughout her entire life, all the way until she was tragically put out of her misery by Mr. Hasegawa. It wouldn't be wrong to call her a tragic villain In short what I'm trying to say is that each of the characters has some sort of compelling history behind them. While it's pretty easy to say that the shiki were responsible, ergo they deserve what's coming to them, it's just not that simple. For a large cast, the writers did not skip out on any characterization, and you can see the perspective of a good majority of the characters. Only character I hated was Masao Murasako. This is why I gave the series a "9" instead of a "10" for characters. He had no purpose in the long scheme of things and was a narcissistic coward. Loved how his sister-in-law had the sense to put him down once and for all. Good riddance. Thematically, there are a ton of messages you can take away from "Shiki." The idea of newer generations replacing older ones, the subversion and questioning of our love of horror as a genre, the idea of humanity and what defines it, the idea of change, the concept of death and the reactions surrounding it, the dangers of mob mentality, the religious and biblical themes present throughout, etc. There are just so many different directions you could take that writing an essay on the show would seem daunting. I can definitively say that "Shiki" exceeded my expectations, and took its place as one of my favorite anime so far. Whether you're watching it casually, or from an analytical standpoint, you'll be sure to love it. Sure it's slow at the beginning, but staying for the roller-coaster ride that is this anime is undoubtedly and extremely worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 15, 2018
Tokyo Ghoul √A
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS LATER IN THE REVIEW
If a book existed called "How Not to Adapt Manga into an Anime: For Dummies", no doubt Tokyo Ghoul Root A would be on the cover. Don't get me wrong, something doesn't need to be completely, faithfully adapted to be a fantastic anime. Sometimes, it doesn't need to be adapted from anything at all. Anime like "Baccano!" showcase how strong creative liberty can be. Other times, the anime can be better than the source material, like "Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid," and "Kakegurui." Tokyo Ghoul Root A is neither of those. First off, our protagonist from last season, Ken Kaneki does ... the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do in the manga. Instead of creating his own splinter group to combat Aogiri Tree, the renegade ghoul faction causing chaos and bloodshed in Tokyo, Ken JOINS them. Yes, you read that right. The exact same organization that brutally tortured him to the point of an insane mental breakdown is the group he decided to metaphorically tie the knot with. Granted, his reasoning and goal seem to be the same in both variations, which is protecting his friends. Despite this, he gives a pretty lousy explanation to Touka of why he joined. And more on Touka. She seems to have close to no physical presence in the duration of the run, at least not any presence that seems to have a lasting impact on the other characters. She's more or less just... there. From the end of last season to the end of Root A, she has not developed as a character at all. The creators took what was the cool and brooding "no shit given" part of Touka and threw it into the garbage. Ignoring these, Root A is riddled with plot holes. We’re given close to no more backstory on Rize, and we never find out the identity of the twins, the masked-bandaged girl, the One-Eyed Owl, etc., I could go on and on. These holes and lack of any meaningful development made the characters seem one-dimensional, boring and unrelatable (except maybe Juuzou). The sound actually wasn't that bad. I mean, it was generic as hell, but it wasn't bad by any means. A good majority of Root A was scored pretty well. My main problem regarding the soundtrack was the choice in opening, both with regards to the song and the visuals. The opening is pretty monotonous and slow, pretty much getting rid of the intense and thrilling tone the Tokyo Ghoul series relies on. I don't often skip openings, but I found myself continuously skipping this one because of how little it contributed to the experience of the show. The art style was pretty inconsistent. At times the animation was absolutely stunning, while at others being pretty mediocre. I mean, it's not as dreadful as the inconsistency in "Juuni Taisen", but still. The lack of coherency in the animation style was pretty distracting. SPOILERS START HERE: Not to mention that the ending episode was horrendous. Hideyoshi (Hide) Nagachika, Kaneki's childhood friend, reveals that he knew that Kaneki was a ghoul SINCE NISHIKI ATTACKED THEM. Like, this dude has been mortally wounded, and he chooses to bring this information up now. Yeah, DON'T bother to let your suffering friend know BEFOREHAND, just bring it up at an emotionally opportune time. The whole cliche "I'm just going to talk about a bunch of important and emotional stuff and conveniently get everything out that I want to tell you before I die" didn't serve any meaningful purpose. And he doesn't even tell Kaneki everything either, like say, IDK, why the hell he joined the CCG, an organization that actively hunts down ghouls. SPOILERS END HERE: If you want to watch Root A, go right ahead. You can form your own opinions about whether or not this was a good season. Personally, I thought the abundance of plot holes in addition to the atrocious lack of character development and emotional tactfulness just ruined what was otherwise a pretty fantastic series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 12, 2018
Log Horizon
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Preliminary
(18/25 eps)
I'm a sucker for video game/isekai anime. After finishing SAO (before the newer seasons came out), I was looking for something similar to watch. EVERYONE who I knew that had a remote interest in anime told me to watch Log Horizon, and how it was so much better than SAO.
After watching a good majority of it, I can conclusively say I don't understand why people say that this is WAY better than SAO. I'm not saying SAO was this fantastic, God-given gift to the anime world, it definitely has some glaring flaws and issues, but how people can say Log Horizon is "way" better ... is beyond me. Are No Game No Life and Re:Zero better than SAO? Yeah, I could agree with that, but not Log Horizon. In watching this series, I have paused or dropped it around three or four times. Not because the animation is bad, not because the characters are bad, not because the sound is bad, no, not any of that, although I'll cover those later in the review. No, my biggest complaint about Log Horizon is how dreadfully boring it is. Every time I come back to watching it, I am constantly reminded of why I dropped it in the first place. Before I elaborate, let me briefly explain this show's high points. The animation and design of the Elder Tale world and characters are very clean. Each of the backgrounds have a stunning attention to detail, and the different characters introduced have interesting designs and personalities (for the most part). The sound is also a great strength of Log Horizon. Similar to many other fantasy-themed anime, there's a very "olde" vibe to the more Renaissance-related areas, whereas more action-packed scenes have the typical but effective music that is similar to a good majority of shounen anime. The OP is also blood-pumping. I NEVER skip it. The characters are either hit or miss. While I previously mentioned that I loved the character designs, there were only a few that I actually ended up feeling really attached to. Shiroe is a pretty awesome protagonist. While he isn't necessarily creative in the "guy with glasses makes witty and intelligent remarks while everyone oohs and ahhs" area, his cunning and calculating nature makes for a very compelling protagonist. Nyanta is your typical badass, really nothing more to say there other than he's just a fun and wise character who is really enjoyable to watch. Krusty is pretty compelling too. And although this might be an unpopular opinion, I have enjoyed Marielle's character from the start. Her humor is extremely contagious and her bubbly persona is very endearing and charming. If I didn't mention a character, it's because I either didn't care for them or didn't remember them. I don't mind Naotsugu's goofiness, but he just isn't memorable despite being a protagonist. Akatsuki's character is honestly just disappointing. She's supposedly a powerful high-level ninja, but you rarely ever see that considering she serves as Henrietta's dress-up loli doll for eighty percent of the plot. I don't mind Henrietta either, but her obsession with Akatsuki was unneeded and annoying. Rundellhous was pretty cool too, but similar to Naotsugu, he didn't really leave an impression on me. (Although there is a pretty great plot twist involving him that I won't spoil). Another issue that I had is a good chunk of the characters are already high-level players, giving little room for any meaningful character development. Onto the story, the primary reason that I wrote this review in the first place. I already mentioned it, but I've dropped this series multiple times for one reason; it's simply just a boring show. While it follows a similar plot to SAO with players being trapped in a video game, the danger isn't there. In SAO, you die in game, you die IRL. In Log Horizon, nothing happens to you aside from respawning and losing any items or money that you weren't smart enough to store (unless you're an NPC, in which case you are unfortunately "all-dead"). This effectively eliminates any real danger. This also plays into the conflict of when a character is "in danger." I can't understand how there is any real danger to begin with when the worst that can happen is you is losing your items. This lack of danger also plays into the severe lack of a conflict. Multiple times I've been told "it gets better the longer you've watched it." Eighteen episodes in, and there has been close to no central conflict that poses the characters. You could say "Well, you haven't watched all of it, so how would you know?" For all I know, there is a very good chance that the plot picks up towards the end of the series, but therein lies the problem. It shouldn't take this long for a compelling conflict to be established. If this show was advertised as a "slice of life", I think I'd be less harsh on it. But no, Log Horizon is not a slice of life at all. No where will you find anything that suggests Log Horizon is even remotely a slice of life. "Action" and "Adventure" are two of the genres listed, despite both being, for the most part, absent for a good majority of the show's run. I usually have no problem with slices of life, since going into it, I KNOW that the plot and story are not as important as the characters. This is why I enjoyed "Miss Kobyashi's Dragon Maid" and "Sakamoto desu ga?" because going into them, I knew that neither would have a concrete plot considering they were slices of life, and I enjoyed both for their charm and how their characters interacted. This show plays out as a slice of life for a good half of the run, focusing less on the actual plot, and more about how the characters adapt to their new world, but again, that's NOT what this genre is. Another minor gripe I have is that the language of the show is pretty bizarre. You have a character in the first few or so episodes saying "We're gonna kick your ass", to Akatsuki calling Naotsugu the very childish insult, "turd". I mean it's very clearly not a kid's show, so why the creators thought it was necessary to use such childish language was beyond me. Again, I DON'T dislike Log Horizon, but my expectations (I guess that's partly my fault) of what the show was meant to be were not met in the slightest. I'd find myself falling asleep at certain episodes because of how devoid of an interesting conflict they were. As I previously mentioned, SAO is NOT perfect at all, but in terms of world-building and the presence of a conflict and plot, it absolutely dominates Log Horizon and drives it into the pixelated ground. I'm sure if I watch a bit more, my opinion might change, but for now, I'm not going to waste investing my time in it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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